Subaru didn't realize it, but he had already started moving—mid-sprint, lunging toward Regulus with burning anger.
"Subaru!!"
Wilhelm roared, his arm reaching out desperately, grasping at thin air.
Regulus raised a brow, smirking coldly, utterly unfazed.
"HYYAAAHH!"
Subaru's cursed-infused fist crashed forward, knuckles smashing into empty space—halting just inches from Regulus's body.
Still, Regulus showed no sign of concern.
Undeterred, Subaru unleashed an endless flurry of strikes, each blow slicing through the air in a futile attempt to land on the immovable figure before him.
"If I weren't such a benevolent soul, I would've slaughtered you both by now—especially you, boy," Regulus sneered. "Throwing punches like some rabid dog? Have you no respect for my rights? My authority as a human being?"
"Shut your mouth!!" Subaru screamed, voice raw with fury.
Regulus's smirk deepened, his eyes glinting with cold amusement.
"You truly believe brute force will change anything here? How quaint."
With a slow, deliberate motion, he raised a hand—palms open, fingers poised like a conductor commanding a symphony of destruction.
Subaru's breath hitched, muscles tensing as he prepared for the inevitable.
Suddenly, the air around Regulus shimmered—an invisible force radiating outward, a suffocating pressure that slammed into Subaru's chest, pushing him back several steps.
"You are nothing but noise to me," Regulus said softly, voice laced with venom. "A fleeting disturbance. You cannot touch what refuses to be touched."
Wilhelm stepped forward, blade drawn, eyes burning with urgency.
"Subaru, fall back!"
But Subaru shook his head, fury blazing in his eyes.
"No. This bastard's killed Gojo-Sensei!! I'll break through anything—even you."
With a roar, he surged forward again, fists crackling with cursed energy, striking faster, harder—each blow an explosion of raw will.
Regulus laughed—a cold, hollow sound that echoed in the stillness.
"Try your best fool, until you realize it all amounts to nothing in the end."
———————————————
Arlam Village...
The wife stepped forward, dagger gleaming, poised to strike the trembling orange-haired girl.
"…I'm sorry. We can't stand against that man. He's invincible."
Petra's muffled sobs filled the heavy air — until a voice shattered the silence.
"Ahhh... I've done it! Done it! DONE IT!!"
Every eye snapped toward the source, disbelief painted across faces that had just witnessed a man torn apart, left broken and bleeding like a corpse.
But there he was—Satoru Gojo—standing tall, wild-eyed and grinning like a man unhinged from reality.
"Reversed Cursed Technique... the true essence of Jujutsu!!" he shouted, arms thrown wide as laughter exploded from his throat—unhinged, raw, a sound that echoed with madness and victory.
"Gyahaha... ahahahahaha! HAH! HAHAHAHAA!!" His voice bounced off the village huts, wild as a storm.
The wife hesitated, dagger trembling, but Gojo was suddenly there—steps closing the distance in an instant, injuries healed but dried blood still marking his pale face look as if he were a ghost.
His cold, burning gaze locked onto her. His hand slammed down on her shoulder, a jarring contrast to his manic laughter.
"You... one of Regulus's wives. You know his ability, don't you?"
The woman shivered beneath his grip.
Gojo's eyes darkened to pearlescent voids of menace.
"Tell me. Or I will kill every last one of you."
As evil as it might've sounded, it was of course a bluff in the grand scheme of things.
Even in his current 'height of ecstasy', he wouldn't do something like that.
———————————————
Wilhelm watched silently, knuckles white on his sword hilt. His fury matched Subaru's—an unbearable outrage for Gojo's proclaimed death—but unlike Subaru, Wilhelm's restraint kept the hand on his blade poised, aware that offense against this Sin Archbishop was irrelivent—
Subaru's breath came in ragged bursts, teeth clenched as each furious strike met nothing but air.
"Damn you, damn you, damn you!" he spat, muscles screaming against the void.
"It's like teaching a mabeast magic. You will never learn."
Regulus's mocking voice cut through the chaos as his hand reached out slowly—like a serpent striking.
Subaru's eyes widened. His cursed energy flared hot, burning bright as he leapt backward, creating space.
Then—
BOOOOOOM!
The earth beneath him exploded, a perfect circle erased at Regulus's swipe, the shockwave roaring toward Subaru.
I'm going to die. Better this way… in the next loop, I'll save Gojo—
SWOOSH—
But before the blast could consume him, something grabbed Subaru—an invisible force yanked him from the devastation, and in a blink, he was gone.
The trees shook as the wind screamed through the empty air where Subaru had stood.
"What...?" his voice barely more than a whisper, lost in the chaos.
Subaru's body was ripped from the path of destruction—pulled back just in time.
His eyes snapped open, heart pounding wildly. The wind howled in his ears, leaves and dust swirling around him like a storm's breath.
He barely had time to register the sensation of weightlessness before a pair of arms caught him—solid, unyielding, yet surprisingly gentle.
"Got you," came Gojo's voice, low and rough but threaded with that unmistakable wild grin.
Gojo's white hair was tousled, his normally calm eyes blazing with a manic light—like a man who had danced with death and returned more dangerous than ever.
"You. How... how are you alive...!!?"
Regulus's voice cracked with disbelief. The perfect calm he always wore—a mask of arrogant detachment—fractured as his eyes narrowed.
His lips trembled, his composure fraying out of shock and anger.
"How dare you?!"
Gojo tilted his head back—eyes wide with wild glee, lips splitting into a manic grin.
Then—
"Keh... gyahahahaAHA!!"
He burst into laughter. Unfiltered. Explosive. Unhinged.
A sound that cut through the silence like a blade. It wasn't the refined, cocky laugh of the strongest sorcerer. It was madness. A man returned from the brink of death, grinning in the face of the impossible.
"S-Sensei...?"
Subaru's voice was quiet. Cautious. There was something different about Gojo now.
He turned slightly—just enough for Subaru to see the blood still dried on his face, his snow-white hair shadowing those glowing blue eyes.
"Oh... lemme tell ya then!!"
His voice lowered, tone trembling with restrained energy.
"I had... an EPIPHANY!"
He raised his hand and clenched it into a fist—energy swirling faintly around his knuckles.
"Reverse cursed technique, baby! Took every ounce of strength and focus I had. And just to make it interesting—"
He leaned forward, grin stretching wide.
"—I managed to add a little something extra to the mix. Dunno if it works yet, though!"
Regulus scoffed, disgusted.
"You've gone mad. Your brush with death has reduced you to babbling nonsense. You should've stayed dead. I—"
Too slow.
Gojo vanished.
CRACK-FWOOSH—!!
The sound of footsteps? Like rain against the ground. A thousand strikes in a second. The world blurred.
One blink—and Gojo was already there, closing the distance between them in a burst of pressure and speed that shook the earth.
His fist ignited with cursed energy, raw and untamed.
He didn't wait for a response.
Didn't posture.
Didn't taunt.
Just struck—
FWOOM-!!
Dust roared upward in a geyser, chunks of stone and shattered earth flung into the air like paper in a gale. The impact of Gojo's punch wasn't just loud—it was seismic. The shockwave tore through the village outskirts, flattening nearby trees in a perfect, expanding ring.
Regulus skidded across the broken ground, his body carving a trench as if a god had flung him from heaven.
And yet—he rose. Slowly. Utterly uninjured.
"You bastard!! Just your very existence is a disturbance to my rights!!" Regulus roared, his voice splitting the air like a bolt of lightning. "You dare violate my sanctity—my space—with those filthy, violent fists of yours?!"
Gojo tilted his head, that wild, unhinged smile still carved into his face like a curse etched in stone.
Regulus moved.
No warning. No words.
Just motion. Blinding, devastating motion.
Gojo's eyes widened, pupils shrinking.
He's fast.
Faster than anything he'd faced in this world, barring one red-haired knight of course.
Regulus didn't waste time—he twisted his wrist with a flick, and the very air answered. The dust kicked up from their battle froze midair— Not exploding outward, not dispersing— But roaring in a vertical line of perfect stillness.
A weapon made of deletion. A wave of evisceration.
SWISH—!!
Gojo moved backwards. His body vanished into a blur of impossible speed, slipping between layers of reality.
To Subaru, it looked like teleportation—an afterimage made solid.
Trees shattered in his wake as Gojo weaved, ducked, and crashed through trunks like cannonballs, zigzagging backward through the forest like a living missile.
Then— His heel crushed into the earth, sending cracks spiraling outward—
And with a roar of strength, he launched himself into the sky.
The forest beneath him was erased. Not burned. Not blasted.
Erased.
Dozens of meters of lush woodland were gone—a clean, gaping swath carved by Regulus's authority.
From above, Gojo looked down—
And the world turned blue.
BOOM—!!
Gravity followed his will, blue pulling at his frame—turning him into a human meteor.
And he fell.
Fell right toward Regulus.
Regulus looked up—eyes widening.
Gojo's fist collided.
A ripple of nullified force tried to stop him—like punching against a god's barrier.
But force met immovable will—and the earth screamed in protest.
CRRR-BOOM!!
The ground imploded, shattering like glass beneath the impact. Chunks of debris—meters wide—were flung skyward. Trees were launched. The surrounding forest lifted as if gravity had reversed for a moment.
Gojo rode the chaos.
He launched off chunks of flying debris like stepping stones, each step building momentum, the sound of each launch like thunder roaring.
Thoughts raced as fast as his body moved.
It's true. The wives said he's invincible. And it's tied to them somehow... but they just wouldn't give me more than that no matter what I did.
Inverted, upside down in the sky, Gojo stilled himself mid-air—Infinity halting all momentum.
He leveled his fingers like a pistol and aimed it toward the ground.
A crimson light burned into existence.
"Reversal Red."
The blast howled downward.
Not an explosion—an eruption. Reality buckled, the pressure alone forcing the ground downward into a deep crater as the forest sank. Trees, rocks, and soil were dragged into a gravitational pit as the Red imploded everything into forceful rejection.
A moment of silence as he landed.
Then Gojo exhaled.
Looked toward Subaru—mouth hanging open in awe.
Wilhelm, wide-eyed, sword slack in his hand.
Gojo just gave them a casual thumbs-up.
"You guys should probably get out of here—"
BAM- BAM- BOOM—!!
Another detonation to the side—a perfect, circular hole carved into the earth as Regulus emerged like a devil shot from hell. His face unmarked. Eyes boiling with rage.
He lunged—directly for Subaru.
Tch—this dirty bastard!!
Gojo's hands clapped together.
The air screamed.
SWISH-
Space twisted, collapsing and reassembling.
Gojo teleported—through sheer control of space itself.
CRACK—!
He caught Subaru mid-movement, ripping him out of the way just in time.
But Regulus struck.
Gojo raised his arms in a cross-guard.
The impact… didn't feel like anything.
And that was the danger.
Gojo flew.
No force. No sensation. Just displacement—like the world had decided he shouldn't be there anymore.
His body was hurled backward at unrelenting speed.
The mountain loomed.
CRRAAAACKK—!!
He crashed through it—body shredding stone, ribs cracking, blood smearing a jagged trail as he drilled through hundreds of feet of solid rock.
He emerged into a hidden cavern—shattered, smoking, dragging breath through teeth clenched with pain.
"…Tch."
He wiped blood from his lips.
Then he laughed.
Low at first.
Then louder.
Unhinged. Beautiful. Alive.
"Gyahahaha… that all you got?!"
He cracked his neck. The broken bones snapped back into place, the blood and the cuts stitching shut and drying.